Can Urban University Expansion and Sustainable Development Co-Exist?: a Case Study in Progress on Columbia University Keith H
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Fordham Urban Law Journal Volume 37 | Number 2 Article 5 2010 Can Urban University Expansion and Sustainable Development Co-Exist?: A Case Study in Progress on Columbia University Keith H. Hirokawa Albany Law School Patricia E. Salkin Albany Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj Part of the Land Use Law Commons Recommended Citation Keith H. Hirokawa and Patricia E. Salkin, Can Urban University Expansion and Sustainable Development Co-Exist?: A Case Study in Progress on Columbia University, 37 Fordham Urb. L.J. 637 (2010). Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/ulj/vol37/iss2/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by FLASH: The orF dham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. It has been accepted for inclusion in Fordham Urban Law Journal by an authorized editor of FLASH: The orF dham Law Archive of Scholarship and History. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HIROKAWA/SALKIN CHRISTENSEN 4/29/2010 7:12 PM CAN URBAN UNIVERSITY EXPANSION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CO-EXIST?: A CASE STUDY IN PROGRESS ON COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Keith H. Hirokawa and Patricia Salkin∗ Introduction ............................................................................................... 638 A. General Sustainability Measures ............................................. 638 B. Sustainability and University Expansion: The Developing Columbia University Experience ............................................. 639 I. Sustainability, Urban Areas, and Sustainable Development in Context ............................................................................................ 643 A. Towards Defining Sustainability ............................................. 643 B. Urban Sustainability ................................................................ 647 II. The Sustainability Roles of the Institution of Higher Learning ......... 650 A. Columbia as a Sustainable Educational Institution ................. 654 1. Sustainability Curriculum ................................................. 654 2. Green Campus: Learning in a Sustainable Environment ... 656 3. The Expansion Project: Modernization of Construction ... 658 B. A Modern Campus—Bigger is Better?.................................... 661 III. Localizing Sustainability: Identity in Sustainable Communities and the Dilemma of Urban Expansions .......................................... 669 A. Public Participation and Sustainability .................................... 669 1. Do Universities, and Columbia in Particular, Have a Special Obligation to Pursue Meaningful Community Relationships? .................................................................... 672 2. Two Plans for Columbia’s Expansion ............................... 675 3. Public Participation Through a Community Benefits Agreement .......................................................................... 680 4. Public Engagement and the Use of Eminent Domain ....... 684 B. Displacement and Gentrification ............................................. 688 ∗ Keith Hirokawa is an Assistant Professor of Law at Albany Law School. Patricia Salkin is the Raymond & Ella Smith Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Government Law Center of Albany Law School. The authors thank Amy Lavine, staff attorney at the Government Law Center for her assistance, as well as Albany Law School students Matthew Waite ’10, Anna Binau ’11, Allison Bradley ’11, and Andrew Wilson ’10. 637 HIROKAWA/SALKIN CHRISTENSEN 4/29/2010 7:12 PM 638 FORDHAM URB. L.J. [Vol. XXXVII Conclusion ................................................................................................. 696 INTRODUCTION The notion that our resource decisions should account for the needs of today without crippling future generations in their ability to make their own resource decisions1 has captured models of corporate responsibility, land use planning, architecture, and even market assessments. Yet sustainability is not limited to environmental quality and natural resources. The concept of sustainability and the approach that it embodies extends throughout our social and economic institutions and applies to, among other things, hous- ing and transportation policies, agricultural practices and food production, public health and medicine, national and international governance, and education. Sustainability is becoming a critical measure of assessment for government, corporate, and business decision making. A. General Sustainability Measures The reason that sustainability has become so popular is undoubtedly re- lated to the breadth of its governing principles. Sustainability is reflected, among other things, by the inclusiveness that can result from open and en- gaged public dialogue, in its resoluteness in seeking an equitable distribu- tion of the benefits of resource use, and through the pluralism that follows the process of reconciling otherwise competing goals and perspectives. Sustainability is immediate and generational, consumptive and conserva- tionist, and local and global. It strikes a chord of key quality of life factors in the public arena, and optimal long-term viable business considerations for the private sector. The application of sustainability is no simple task.2 The variability in what constitutes sustainability for different projects (e.g., geothermal pow- 1. See, e.g., Gro Harlem Brundtland, Our Common Future, in UNITED NATIONS WORLD COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT 3, 14 (1987), available at http://www.worldinbalance.net/intagreements/1987-brundtland.php. 2. See, e.g., SIMON DRESNER, THE PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABILITY 2 (2008) (“Some en- vironmentalists have claimed that sustainable development is a contradiction in terms, and can be used merely as a cover for continuing to destroy the natural world. On the other side of the debate, some economists have argued that sustainable development is too cautious about the future, potentially leading to sacrifices of economic growth for the sake of exces- sive concern about natural resources. Defenders of the concept argue that disagreement about sustainable development does not show that it is meaningless. Rather, it is a ‘contest- able concept’ like liberty or justice. Most people support these goals but disagree about ex- actly what constitutes liberty or justice.”); Lawrence J. MacDonnell, Sustainable Use of Wa- ter Resources, 12 NAT. RESOURCES & ENV’T 97 (1997) (“The virtue of sustainability as a concept sufficiently broad to embrace contemporary thinking about human objectives be- comes the curse of vagueness when the discussion shifts from the general to the specific.”). HIROKAWA/SALKIN CHRISTENSEN 4/29/2010 7:12 PM 2010] URBAN UNIVERSITY EXPANSION 639 er, subdivision, or timber sale), in different regions (depending on climate, population, and character), and in different settings (rural, suburban, or ur- ban), appears to undermine the likelihood of identifying any universally applicable principles or standardization in application. Moreover, the no- tion that the traditionally competitive goals of economy, environment, housing, food, and population can be reconciled raises suspicions about the practicability of pursuing sustainable policies and projects.3 Although such suspicions deserve consideration, it is important to note that sustainability is best understood as a process and a framework that acquires its meaning in particular contexts. B. Sustainability and University Expansion: The Developing Columbia University Experience This Article employs sustainability as a framework to analyze the recent physical expansion plans of Columbia University for the purpose of illu- strating the complexities that arise in urban development and higher educa- tion practices, as well as the problems of trying to simultaneously imple- ment both. In this context, land-use planning and regulatory agencies, as well as courts, have traditionally provided a high level of deference and le- niency in the application of land-use laws and regulations when it comes to siting and expansion issues for educational institutions. The issues that sur- round these situations generally include the siting of schools and related fa- cilities (such as athletic fields) in zoning districts where such uses may not be permitted, and the reconciling of specific regulations such as historic district reviews, dimensional requirements, and environmental considera- tions. Institutions of higher education can further complicate matters, as available land for expansion is often a physical and political challenge, and the institutional business model behind expansion plans can overshadow the educational purposes that the expansion is intended to serve. Even more complex are expansions of educational institutions in urban areas, where the acquisition of new land can result in a “university creep” into neighborhoods, and where the scale of the proposed development may not be in keeping with past and present community character. Columbia University, in New York City, “the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York,”4 is a private, non-sectarian university 3. See, e.g., David G. Victor, Recovering Sustainable Development, 85 FOREIGN AFF. 91 (2006). 4. Columbia University, A Brief History of Columbia, http://www.columbia.edu/ about_columbia/history.html (last visited Mar. 10, 2010). HIROKAWA/SALKIN CHRISTENSEN 4/29/2010 7:12 PM 640 FORDHAM URB. L.J. [Vol. XXXVII that has been operating in the borough of Manhattan since 1754.5 Over time, the